"Today, the first and perhaps the only duty of the philosopher is to defend man against himself: to defend man against that extraordinary temptation toward inhumanity to which - almost without being aware of it - so many human beings today have yielded."
Gabriel Marcel

02 June 2016

I got a chuckle from article this evening about how technical analysis is useless. It was written by a fellow who admits in the opening lines that he does not use it and knows very little about it. Well, it is no real surprise then that he thinks it is useless.

It would be as if some child of nature from deep in the Amazon discovered an sextant left behind by some explorers, and found it to be very ineffective as an axe. Too short and bulky. Useless!

Or even more aptly, if an inexperienced but ardent weekend warrior were to receive a collection of tools as a gift and pronounce, after some cursory experimentation without experience and instruction, that a roofing square makes a very poor wood chisel indeed.

Seasoned traders tend to use whatever works for them in order to get the job done. They are focused on the task, and they improve over time by learning. And others like to argue, and debate seemingly without end on various chatboards. about systems and seers, about which is best for predicting the future, and the various merits of each. They do not want a set of tools, but a black box, or better yet, a crystal ball or a prophet. They focus on the means without fully understanding the place that they have in achieving the ends.

Don't do this. It is a complete waste of time. If there were even a nearly perfect system, or a prophetic voice who could tell you the course of future market prices even eight out of ten times, I guarantee you that they would not be dishing it out on the internet, at any price, unless they were as wise as Solomon and as selfless as angels.

There was intraday commentary about the unusually high volume of gold deliveries for the June contract on the Comex for the first three days of this period. Given the recent history, it is almost astonishing.

The European Central Bank did nothing today. It is what they seem to do best.

They suggested that they might start buying corporate bonds, presumably at non-market rates.

Why don't they just mail envelopes stuffed with cash to their corporate cronies and banksters? I mean, from what I can tell, most of the policy in the US and Europe has been focused on further enriching a wealthy few, and sustaining a corrupt financial system that is unsustainable without heavy subsidies and seigniorage of information, special allowances, and outright monetary assistance.

In the European Bank's defense, the Fed is just as bad or worse when it comes to lack of principles, class myopia, and cronyism.

I have a hunch that gold and silver are being capped here for a reason. Maybe. It's hard to tell with the non-linear Fed.

As old Sister Killian used to say of such behaviour, 'babies must play.'

Le Propriétaire

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Need Little - Want Less - Love More

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership cannot reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without implicating a broad swath of the powerful, including themselves.

The moneyed interests and their aspirants tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so. Discipline is maintained by various forms of soft financial rewards and career and social coercion."

These are personal observations about the economy and the markets. In providing information, I hope this allows you to make your own decisions in an informed manner, even if it is from learning by my mistakes, which are many. As a standing policy I never provide individual investment advice to anyone. I will only occasionally disclose my personal positions for purposes of illustration. Understand that my own circumstances could differ greatly from your own, and therefore what is suitable for me may not be suitable for you. My comments are intended to be reflection on general macro financial and economic events and trends.